CHAPTER SIX

“No grace? No womanhood? Ah, beastly creature!”

- William Shakespeare

 

Gates sat at a private table in the corner of an elegant, dark restaurant, beneath the beams of the soft lights against the wall. A half-eaten prime steak sat before him on a beautiful cream-colored plate with gold accents surrounding the perimeter. Blood poured slowly out of the center of the meat and spilled onto the plate.

Preparing to finish his meal, he was bewildered when the most notorious Prophet of them all pulled a chair from a neighboring table and perched in front of him as if she’d been invited.

Stabbing a piece of juicy meat with his fork, he aimed it in her direction and asked, “Steak?”

“I’m a vegetarian,” she said crossing her legs. “Don’t believe in harming animals.” Although in her mind, that didn’t include her aunt’s pesky cats.

He chuckled softly. Having limited knowledge of Nine and Alice’s plight against each other, he couldn’t imagine her not harming anything in her way. “And still I learn something new every day.” He placed the meat into his mouth. With a gullet of food on the center of his tongue, he asked, “Tell me, Alice Prophet, what can I do you for?”

“It’s not what you can do for me but what I can do for you.”

He laughed. “I must tell you, I’m not a man who enjoys to be teased. Forgive me if I’m being brash. I guess you can chalk it up to old age. Whatever my rationalization, I don’t have a lot of time. So what the fuck do you want?”

“Wow…I was hoping that you could at least invite a girl to your home. And give her the option of a good fuck, like I’m sure you would my cousin if I were her instead of me.”

Gates sat his fork down, leaned back in the chair and looked her over. The powder blue dress with the bow underneath her neck made her appear sweet even though he knew she was as far from innocent as the seat of hell. He grabbed the white cloth napkin off the table and wiped his mouth. “Okay…I’ll play. Let’s go.”

 

****

 

Gates tossed a log into the fireplace and took a second to be calmed by the flames and soft crackle before facing Alice. When he was awakening from his soft trance, in a Shakespearean tone, he said, “O keep me from the worse than killing lust.”

Alice, flummoxed by his statement, tilted her head and said, “Excuse me?”

“It’s Shakespeare,” he said turning around, placing the fireplace poker against the side of the wall. “My apologies, Nine spoiled me. I assumed all Prophets were well-read.”

“I’m sorry to disappoint you but you thought wrong,” she admitted. “I’ll leave Nine to the world of tales and folklore that seems to consume so much of her mind space. I much prefer to focus on what’s in front of me. The here and the now.”

He laughed and sat in the recliner across from her. Folding his legs, he examined her slightly scarred face and said, “Looks like someone punished you. May I ask what for?”

She rubbed her hand over the wounds. “I wouldn’t say they punished me. Rather they were a little too aggressive over a disagreement. But it’s okay. All’s well that ends my way.”

Gates nodded. “So now that we are here, be clearer, Alice Prophet. What do you want from me?”

“What I desire won’t cost you a thing.”

“And still I don’t believe you.”

She giggled. “My cousin Nine is really beautiful isn’t she? Even with her blackened skin.”

Gates smiled and shook his head. “What makes you think that her dark skin makes her less attractive?”

“Doesn’t it?” She smirked. “Grandfather used to bleach his skin so it must be true.”

“What happened to you? What turmoil do you live with every day that has caused you to see people of your own race so poorly?”

Alice grew slightly uncomfortable at Gates’ successful attempt to penetrate the first layer of her internal pain. She was taught to hate herself and expressed herself in her views of other people. “You’re blinded by Nine.”

“And your point?”

“My point is that you’ll never have her moving at the rate that you are. If you truly want my cousin, I can give her to you. And all you have to do is listen and do exactly as I say.”

Gates knew she would be interesting, as all Prophets were, but her arrogance about being able to give him anything he couldn’t afford was farcical. “What makes you think that I want Nine Prophet?”

“The look in your eyes every time I say her name is enough reason.” Alice laughed. “So let’s stop the distractions and get on with the truth. You want Nine and I can help you.”

Silence.

He uncrossed his legs and poured two glasses of wine from his bar in the corner of the room. “Say that I want Nine. And say that you are in a position to give her to me, what would I have to do? And what do you want from me in return?” He handed her a glass and kept the other for himself.

“I don’t want much.” She crossed her legs. “Not right now anyway.” She winked. “And I don’t proclaim to be a matchmaker. But I do know that if you’re interested in a woman like Nine Prophet you must first break down her confidence if you want to possess her. Make her self-conscious about her beauty and most of all her intelligence. You do that and in a month’s time, she will belong to you.” She sipped her wine.

Gates grinned. “You seem very educated on what it takes to destroy your blood relative. What makes you such a Nine expert?”

“I want to tell you but first I need you to keep an open mind.”

“You can’t get more open than this. So let’s talk.”